The Singing Bee: Singing Competition Game Show Making a Comeback

Published: April 16, 2009

As you may recall, NBC’s The Singing Bee and FOX’s Don’t Forget the Lyrics game shows debuted within a day of one another back in July 2007. Lyrics has survived for three seasons and new episodes are scheduled to debut this Summer. So, what happened to Singing Bee?

The Singing Bee is a high-energy game show that’s a cross between karaoke and spelling bee-type competitions. Hosted by former ‘N Sync member Joey Fatone, the series features contestants trying to remember the words to popular songs. In each episode, six contestants are pulled from the audience to test their knowledge of lyrics.

As participants make mistakes, the number is whittled down to one player who takes part in the last round, the Final Countdown, and a chance to win $50,000. The house band is led by Ray Chew and the Honey Bee dancers include Ferly Prado Dunn, Monique Cash, Holly Cruikshank, and Lisa Byrne.

Does the new country Singing Bee sound better or worse?

Though Singing Bee got off to a great start — debuting to 13.1 million viewers — the ratings fell off pretty quickly. Only 19 of the 21 produced episodes were aired, with the last one being shown in December 2007. While FOX has stuck by Lyrics, NBC cancelled Singing Bee after just one abbreviated season. The show has been adapted for numerous international versions and has been distributed in over 30 countries to date.

But now, it appears that Singing Bee is coming back — but not to NBC. Instead, the competition show is being revived for CMT (Country Music Television). Word is that the format will remain essentially the same though 60% of the music selections will be from the country genre while the remaining 40% will be culled from popular music of the last 40 years. There’s no word yet if Fatone will be returning or if the show will have a new host that’s more associated with country music.

Auditions are taking place this weekend at the CBS Radford studios in Los Angeles. They’re looking for people with great on-air personalities and who know music lyrics. For more information, visit TheSingingBee.com